Ep. 100: Seasonal Allergies 101

Today’s episode is about Seasonal Allergies 101! We’re jumping into the science of what actually happens in our bodies when we experience seasonal allergies and what remedies may help reduce some of the watery, itchy symptoms.

We’re back with our 100th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

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Cassy Joy: Welcome back to another episode of the Fed and Fit podcast. I am your host, Cassy Joy Garcia. I am so excited to have you here today. We are going back to a very traditional style podcast. When I first started the Fed and Fit podcast, just about every episode, then we went into every other episode, revolved around some sort of fun nutrition science type topic, where I would dive into what I thought, I don’t know, were really neat topics, whether it was hydration or stress; or goodness, sleep. We’d break it down into kind of a fun 101-type show. You know; stress 101; hydration 101.

So what I want to talk about today, while I have a number of fabulous interviews lined up for you guys that we’re going to go over in the next month; today I thought I would do something very seasonal specific and talk about seasonal allergies. So today’s show is about seasonal allergies 101. We’re going to demystify this. Right now, we are just kind of at the very beginning of spring, and this is really where a lot of folks’ seasonal allergies start to feel triggered, and they experience some of the runny nose, and the congestion, and maybe some of the headaches, the itchy eyes or the sore throat; whatever it is. You just feel like you have to survive it.

And if you can’t tell in my own voice, I’m kind of recovering from some of that myself. So I thought that was a really good topic maybe to jump into. I’m a firm believer that knowledge is power. I’ve said that in a lot of different avenues, and today is no different; this topic is no different. I think let’s understand; let’s dive into maybe some of the science of what happens, why we have allergies; why some folks have some allergies more than others. And then talk about some of the options; things that we can do, whether it is over the counter, or working with a physician, or lifestyle practices. Things that we can do to reduce what feels like this incredible seasonal burden.

So let’s get into it! Let’s talk about seasonal allergies 101. Ok; so seasonal allergies, which is also sometimes referred to as hay fever, in a teeny tiny nutshell is an immune response to something that is not actually harmful. So it’s an allergic response to the grass pollen, or the tree pollen. I live in San Antonio Texas right now; and the oak pollen is just kicking everyone’s tushie. And that oak pollen isn’t actually a threat, but our bodies are poised to interpret it as a threat, so that’s really what we’re talking about here, those kinds of allergic response type of molecules.

So, pollen from trees, like oak trees, and grass, and mold spores from fungi float around during the day, and while we’re outside, or we’ve got the door open or the window open, those tiny little molecules find their way up into our nose, they are then making contact with our body through our mucous membranes; so through our nose, our mouth, we breath them in; or through our eyes, for example. We can also have a physical reaction to them, as well. I remember as a kid growing up, I would roll around sometimes in the grass; I’d be playing outside and I’d get all itchy from the grass, so that was a physical contact to those allergens.

So what happens is, and I’m talking, it’s kind of a passion project of mine, because I am somebody who has suffered from really terrible allergies, almost my entire adult life. I don’t remember them much when I was a kid, but they were really, really bad when I became an adult. And it’s just been something that I’ve dealt with. I remember thinking; gosh, I just want to be able to enjoy this beautiful time of the year. All of my favorite flowers are in bloom, and I feel like I need to walk around in a bubble in order to be able to enjoy it. I’m sleepy because the pressure on my sinuses is putting on my head; I have these headaches, I have the constant drainage. My voice changes this time of year, every year. And I found a way kind of around it.

Anyway, like I said, this is a topic near and dear. So the way that it works in our bodies, is when we first encounter the offending pollen; let’s just zero in on pollen for right now. Plasma cells in our body craft; so these pollen, let’s say they float past your mucous membrane. You’re going from; let’s see, goodness. What’s a good example? You go outside for a walk one morning, and you’re walking around; and let’s just say it happens this slowly. You’re walking around outside, and there is some pollen floating around in the air. You make contact via your mucous membranes, those exact pollen.

And the plasma cell in your body think this pollen is just as harmful as some sort of a bacteria or a bug. So it doesn’t react; your body doesn’t react the first time it’s exposed to that pollen. But what it does is that plasma cell creates and IgE antibody, or kind of like a watchdog for example, who is especially meant to sniff out that exact offender; that exact pollen. Also known as an antigen.

So your body crafts this antibody that’s meant to look out for that exact antigen. So you go on your morning walk, and little do you know that your body is mounting this attack force; this defense against that pollen, that benign pollen that’s not actually going to hurt you.

So you have your lovely walk one day; and then you go out on day two; and all of a sudden on day two you have this allergic reaction. You’re on your walk and your nose is running, and your eyes are itching, and you’re thinking; “what the heck happened?” So, those antibodies that were produced by those plasma cells, those IgE antibodies, essentially surround themselves around another form in your immune system called a Mast cell. And a Mast cell is a great big cell; another member of your immune system, and those antibodies hang out on this Mast cell just kind of waiting; kind of like a bunch of dogs at the front door just waiting for you to walk through, and they are just ready to mount their offence, their attack; they’re ready for you.

So when you come across that pollen again, on day two; those antibodies are ready for it. So that pollen then is specifically attached to those exact antibodies, and as soon as that pollen attaches to the antibodies, the antibody tells that Mast cell that it is hanging onto; tells the Mast cell, “Ok, we got it! Release the histamines!” So the histamines, which is probably a word that allergy sufferers are familiar with; the histamines are then released by that white blood cell, that Mast cell, and the histamine is meant to then flush and expel, is really what it’s job is. Those histamines go off in your body, they tell your mucous membranes to start producing the mucus; start making the throat itch so she coughs; start tickling the membrane in her nose so she sneezes. Tickle her eyes so her eyes are really itchy and they start running. What it’s trying to do is it’s trying to evacuate these dangerous offenders; what your body interprets as a really dangerous offender, where as you and I know that oak pollen isn’t going to hurt anybody. All the oak pollen is like, “what did I do?”

So anyway, your body creates this huge over reaction offense to that pollen, or that fungi, whatever it is you’ve come across, and the histamines are the things that really make us feel crummy. So that’s kind of what happens; and all of that mucus, all the sneezing, all the coughing, the watering eyes; all of that is meant to flush out and get rid of whatever the foreign invader is.

Ok, so hopefully that kind of sums it up. That’s what’s going on in your body. And your body is producing more antibodies as it’s exposed to those things. And what I’ve learned is that the half-life for an IgE antibody, from what I understand, is about 4-6 hours after symptoms stop. So let’s say you hop on an airplane and you go someplace totally different. And you just had that morning walk; that second morning walk, and you’re a sneezing, runny-eyed, itchy, coughy mess. And you hop on an airplane that day and you go to a completely different location that has none of those things. After your symptoms subside; so the histamines finish their round, the Mast cells, those white blood cells are not producing any more histamines because there’s no more pollen interacting and attaching to those IgE, those specific IgE antibodies, there’s no more antigens to trigger the antibodies to release the histamine.

So after all that trigger reaction subsides, and your symptoms go away; after that point in time, any antibodies that are hanging out on those Mast cells will start to die off after about 4-6 hours. So that’s a pretty short half-life. That doesn’t last very long. Which gives us hope; which is why we can usually bounce back relatively quickly when we do travel; whether we’re traveling to a place that doesn’t have allergies, or we’re coming back from a place that does. So that’s why we’re able to heal relatively quickly.

Ok, so, what makes us predisposed to allergies? Let’s talk about this; seasonal allergies is really what we’re talking about here. I’m not really talking necessarily about food; that would be an entirely different topic, but we kind of touch on it, and the principles are all relatively the same. So, what could make us predisposed to having seasonal allergies? And a lot of this has to do with your constitution; your genetic makeup, right? You could have inherited an immune system, genetically, an immune system that is more prone to being reactive. It’s more prone to making kind of a big deal out of not a very big deal. So that could be a part of it.

I think about my dad, for example; has really terrible allergies, just like I do. The poor guy, we sneeze our way together through the spring, and then again during the fall when new allergies come up. So it can definitely be inherited. Something that can help give you; I don’t want to say give you allergies, but let’s talk on the other side of the coin. Maybe help prevent you from having them more when you’re an adult is being exposed to seasonal allergens when you’re younger, and you get those exposures. And that’s really when your body; your immune system is trying to build itself up. So your immune system is encountering actual bugs; actual bacteria, actual little parasites that it needs to mount a defense to.

So if you think about, while your body, as a baby, is encountering all of these offenders, the actual bugs and then this pollen that’s coming in. When your body has both of those two things to look at, it’s able to then more easily discern; oh, the pollen is not a big deal. I don’t need to worry about that. So your body gets used to seeing the pollen, while it concerns itself with actually fighting the real bugs; the things that could actually make your body sick. So when you’re exposed to those things as a baby, your body is more easily able to discern. So that’s one thing; it could be some of us have more seasonal allergies, because maybe we weren’t sick as much when we were kids.

Or maybe we weren’t raised in a place that had a lot of seasonal allergies. Maybe it was a very urban setting, if you were raised in an urban setting. It’s generally understood that kids who are raised in more rural settings outside in the dirt, and on the farm, and with all the flowers, and everything that comes up throughout the year, they live a lot of their life outside, typically don’t suffer as much as adults from seasonal allergies.

It’s also believed; let’s see, I talked about all of that, what’s next. Ok, so it’s true for adults as well; whether or not, because as a baby you have no control how you were raised as a kid or where you were raised as a kid. But as an adult, the more we shelter ourselves, and the less we’re around other kinds of bugs, the more I guess our immune system is really calm, and that’s a good thing; but it’s also sitting there twiddling its thumbs. So it might be like, I need something to do.

You guys, I’ve read a bunch of articles on this, and I’m trying to really summarize it so it’s more conversational; but essentially that’s a lot of professionals takes on this, is that our immune systems are postured, and they’re looking for something to make themselves useful for us. So if some allergens come across it’s plate; some pollen from the grass, or the trees, or whatever it is outside; or dust, or animals, whatever it is. Those kinds of allergies, when it comes across them, it gives the immune system something to do if it doesn’t have actual diseases to fight. So not just as babies is that relevant, but also as adults. Because we don’t want to get sick, we don’t want to get out there and get into the real world.

I’m experiencing that myself; it’s just myself and my husband, and when we hang out with our friends that have small kids, it sends my immune system through kind of a rocker, because it’s not used to being exposed, or being on constant being able to shuffle through real bugs, deal with it, and we’re going to move on. So that’s just something to keep in mind.

And before I move onto the next part of our show; where we’re going to talk about the things we can do to help combat our seasonal allergic reactions; we’re going to talk about the drugs; briefly about the drugs, over the counter. We’re going to talk about immunotherapy, and we’re going to talk about lifestyle practices. But before we do that, let’s hear a quick word from one of our sponsors.

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And we’re back! Ok, so let’s first talk about the things that we can do to help combat our seasonal allergy symptoms. And I want to start first with addressing; I’m not going to talk a whole lot about them, but I want to address the over the counter drugs; specifically speaking to anti-histamines. So an antihistamine; and you guys, I have a medicine cabinet full of these things, so do not think I’m A) recommending them, or B) vilifying them. Neither. My personal take on this, as with everything, is you’re the best person to make decisions about your health and your lifestyle; all I’m going to do is tell you my personal experiences. I’m not a medical doctor. But I’ll tell you my personal experiences very briefly, and then it’s up to you to go and talk to your doctor and then maybe go do your own research. But, I’ll tell you briefly.

An antihistamine is meant to help reduce the impacts of histamines. So those Mast cells, after that antigen, that pollen attaches to the antibody; that IgE antibody, which has told that white blood cell to release the histamines; antihistamines what they’re supposed to do is go through and temper the impact of the histamines that have been released, right? So the point of them is not to tell our body to stop having a reaction, because it’s still reacting. It’s still doing all those things; it’s just dulling the effect of the histamine, which is the thing making our nose run and our eyes itch, and our cough, and our sneeze. So it’s reducing the impact of those.

And some of them have their own side effects, they’re all different; I’m not going to talk about specific brands, so definitely do your own research here. In the past, a lot of them made your drowsy; there was really no way around that. They’ve come out with a lot of non-drowsy options, so if that’s something; if you’re really like, “I just can’t live. I cannot live with these seasonal allergies,” that’s something that a lot of people use. And I was one of them. I used antihistamines for years and years and years; I just couldn’t live without them. I got to a point, leading into this next topic, I got a point where I just didn’t want to live with those medications anymore, and I wanted to feel like I wasn’t losing months out of my year every year. I always felt like I was surviving spring; that’s all I thought.

So, I turned to an allergist. I started seeing an actual allergist, a physician; and I love her, she’s fantastic. San Antonio Asthma and Allergy, if you’re in the area, by chance. I know most listeners are not. But if you happen to be here, Dr. Adrianne Vaughn and her husband, Dr. Vaughn, as well, are in that practice. And I go to her, and I love her! I remember sitting down with her one day, and I was like, “I just don’t want to live with these medications anymore. I don’t want to have to depend on antihistamines the rest of my life.” So we started talking about immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy, in this context, within seasonal allergy context, are allergy shots. And the way that it works is you’re given; she does an allergy panel to determine what you’re actually allergic to. I remember when she did that panel on me; it’s kind of like taking a metal comb or a metal brush with a bunch of little pokers on it, and they press it on your back, and each one of those little dots have a specific allergen, so they have a map of it that they’re testing. They press it onto your back; it doesn’t hurt, it just feels like brush that you’re pushing into your back, and then they give you a certain amount of time and then they come back and check it, and they see what you’ve reacted to. So on that; I remember, it was kind of like I lit up like a Christmas tree. I was allergic to a lot. My immune system was postured and ready to fight! Which is why I had such a hard time throughout the year with seasonal allergies.

So what we decided to do, what I decided to do, was go through immunotherapy. It’s where you’re given a deliberate dose of those allergens; they are injecting you with those actual allergens at specific periods of time, increasing that amount over time. So what this does is it forces your immune system; it gives it that one dose. You remember the first time that your dosed, it creates those IgE antibodies, but no histamine is released until the second encounter. So you’re given a shot; let’s say, for me I was given a shot of an oak pollen, etc., mix. They gave me a shot of that, and then I waited two weeks. I didn’t actually have a reaction from those shots, because the reaction would have been the next exposure. And they don’t like to do allergy shots during the time in which that season, that allergy season is existing. Which is so funny; because that’s when you always think about wanting to go see the allergist and talk about shots, is when you’re in the middle of an allergic reaction, right, when it’s really seasonally specific.

So you’re given the shot, and then for me I was on the fast program, I wanted to knock it out. So it was every 2 weeks; and then I go back. And in that span of two weeks, my body had had time to create those antibodies, which were ready to tack onto that pollen again the next time it came through my body; but the second encounter never happened. So those antibodies died off. And then two weeks later I was give another shot; and it created more antibodies; but those antibodies went unfulfilled. Those watchdogs were sitting there waiting, but nobody ever showed up. So they went away.

Eventually what you’ve done is you’ve conditions your body to understand that this is not an actual attacker. Whereas a bacterium or a bug will start to multiply in your body over time, or if you’re around kids, or numerous encounters with different kinds of; oh goodness, all kinds of bugs that are out there. Numerous encounters with things that are multiplying in your body; actual diseases, is when those antibodies are fulfilled appropriately. But they were never fulfilled. So what it does it helps your immune system understand that these benign particles are not actually dangerous over time. And by causing it to make these antibodies and then these antibodies go unfulfilled, over time, after enough times, doing that, your body stops producing the antibodies.

And this is not a forever fix; I’ve gone through immunotherapy twice now in my life, but I’ve made it about 5 years after each one, and it’s worth it. It changed my life; I didn’t have to take medications. It was wonderful. So anyways; that is definitely the extreme version for dealing with seasonal allergies, but that’s one I wanted to tell you about, my personal experience.

Ok; and now circling back around to the holistic side of everything; let’s talk about some lifestyle practices. Because this is where I really know; {laughs} not that I don’t know my stuff elsewhere, but this is really where I’m passionate. Because there are certain things we can tweak, that we can do, just in living that will help reduce the burden of some of these symptoms.

So, let’s talk first about stress. Number one, stress levels. I’ve got about 10 points here, just so you know what to expect. Stress levels; when we’re particularly stressed, whether we’re traveling, which can be stressful on the body. Let’s say we’ve got a stressful work deadline, families; whatever it is that is causing our stress levels to rise, know that stress will actually cause an immune response in our bodies. We will start; we’ll be more prone to produce those antibodies. So that’s natural. If you’re more stressed, you’re more likely to have reactions to seasonal allergens.

So, how can we offset that? Because sometimes it’s hard to just adjust stress. And you guys know that I don’t really like to tell; the advice, “work on your stress” is not helpful to anybody. But what we can do to help combat stress levels like that is try to get more sleep. Ok? So do your best to get more sleep. The more stressed you are, the more you really need to rest so that your body can repair at night time. So if you are chasing major deadlines, make it a priority to go to bed a little bit earlier, and maybe give yourself the grace to sleep in on the weekends. Make sure sleep becomes a priority; the more stressed you are, the more sleep needs to be a priority, and that will help your body settle down a little bit.

Next; we want to avoid, now big picture here. If we’re thinking about; these are lifestyle practices, right? So stress is one of them, but we also kind of want to look at the foods that we’re eating. And if you think about it, so many of us in this real food vein understand that there are certain foods we eat that cause an immune reaction in our bodies. It causes us to puff up, we don’t feel good, and that really is because we’ve triggered an immune response in some regard. And we do that enough over time, and it can turn into something chronic, where we get chronic inflammation.

So, even though we may not be suffering from chronic inflammation anymore if we’ve been following a real food or paleo-type lifestyle for a number of years, there are some paleo-friendly foods that are still inflammatory. So if we try to avoid those foods, we’ll be doing a little bit better. So some of those; the first one I want to talk about is alcohol. I recommend you avoid alcoholic drinks during seasonal allergies; or at least avoid that second glass of wine with dinner. Have the first one if that’s part of your plan, but try to not indulge too much further. Because first, alcoholic drinks actually have their own histamines; so when you’re consuming them, it’s kind of why sometimes red wine makes people kind of sneeze a little bit or feel stuffed up, it’s because you’re actually drinking some histamines there. So your body is just taking them in and using them. So that’s one of it; alcohol is inflammatory to begin with, so that’s a good one to avoid or at least be conscious of during seasonal allergies.

I recommend avoiding; this is a big one that I learned when I worked for; I actually worked for a vegan physician back when I first graduated from college and I learned a lot from her. But something that really stuck through; now of course she was vegan so she advised pure plant based, she didn’t encourage any kind of animal proteins or any intake at all, including dairy. But with some of her patients who were suffering from seasonal allergies, I really observed that when they cut out dairy during seasonal allergy times, their symptoms were reduced quite a bit.

Now, knowing what I know now, I think there’s a lot to do with conventional dairy versus dairy from grass-fed cows; really healthy sources. So I think if you are someone who likes to snack on cheese, or you have conventional butter, or conventional milk in your refrigerator, try to cut back on dairy during these times and see what happens. Because dairy, especially from conventional products, and what I’m mean by conventional is not grass-fed. So it’s just the plain jane milk that you probably grew up having, if you grew up in an urban setting. So cut back on those, because those can actually have an immune response as well, and cause more drainage and more inflammation. So I would cut back on the dairy.

Let’s see; other nutrition things that we can do. I think that there’s some research out there, there’s not a whole lot of really solid science, but it’s one to try if you’re desperate. Local honey has been known to help; and the idea is; and it’s not just when you’re in the middle of an allergic attack from seasonal allergies, these aren’t kind of, the honey isn’t going to help you come out of that, but it should help prevent or reduce the impacts of allergies over time. So eat some local honey; the bees have taken the pollen; the idea is that the histamines, those allergens, you’re ingesting them in a really healthy form, so your body is, kind of like the allergy shots, taking those in a little bit at a time, and it’s able to learn that those are not actually dangerous. So that could be one; local honey. If you just moved to a new place or a new part of the country, go buy some local honey and try to take in a teaspoon or two of local honey, every two weeks. That’s something you could do. There’s not a whole lot of science to back that up, but it makes sense in a lot of ways. Bee pollen; local bee pollen is very similar.

Also on the nutrition side, some folks really like to recommend apple cider vinegar shots; so what you would do, is you would get the apple cider vinegar with the mother. The Bragg’s, for example; that’s the kind with that thing floating around into it, and that’s the really important part that’s got probiotic benefits, but the apple cider vinegar mix it with a little lemon juice and definitely dilute it with water, and take a shot of that. I would say max a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar, and the rest with water and the lemon juice. You could start with a couple times a day; one time a day; those kinds of things, diluted shots. Those are meant to help reduce the thickness of mucus, so it’s supposed to help thin things out and hopefully eventually help give you some relief. Lots of fruit has been known to do the exact same thing, so eat more apples, eat more grapes, things like that. Fruits that you can easily incorporate into your lifestyle.

The last nutrition one that I want to talk about is nettle leaf tea; and I will link to all of these that we’re talking about in our show notes. But nettle tea is a specific; gosh, medicinal, the kind that I like to buy is from Traditional Medicinals. And it is just a natural little plant that has been known to help reduce symptoms from seasonal allergies. So nettle tea doesn’t taste exactly amazing, but I will make it with some lemon and then maybe put in a little honey, maybe local honey, have this anti-seasonal allergy cocktail if you want. Enjoy one of those a day during the time; it should help a little bit.

And then more on the lifestyle piece of everything, things that we can be aware of is trying to avoid smoke; smoke will irritate us further, and can propel seasonal allergy symptoms. So if you have friends who smoke cigarettes, or other kinds of smoke, maybe avoid those. Maybe avoid campfires; that can also be irritating.

What else do we have in here; another really fun trick that you can do if you have seasonal allergies is; so many of us, myself included, I like to shower in the morning. Because it wakes me up, and I like to get ready for the day. But if you suffer from seasonal allergies, something to think about is rinsing off right before you get into bed. And if you did have any pollen or anything that collected on your body throughout the day it’s a really good way to just get if off so you’re able to maybe get more restful sleep, your immune system can calm down.

And then the last piece of advice that I want to leave you with today; just because I can’t help myself. I think it’s important to remember; when you’re having seasonal allergies, and you’re sneezing a lot, you’re blowing your nose a lot; you have a lot of mucus; your eyes are watering a lot; you’re losing a lot of fluid during the day. Way more fluid than you’re probably used to losing. So please stay hydrated. You’re going to give your body the best fighting chance to feel better, and to realize that it’s not under attack. You’re going to give it the best chance if you stay hydrated. So make sure you’re drinking lots and lots of water.

The best way to get started on kind of getting a ballpark on how much water to drink is to take your body weight in pounds; it’s the only time I think your body weight is really important; take your body weight, you can even approximate it if you don’t have a good idea. Don’t go buy a scale for this, just get a ballpark. Divide that number by two; that’s the number of ounces of water a day to drink to start. And if you’re having seasonal allergies right now, and you’re blowing your nose 27 times a day; like I completely understand, then increase that, multiply it by at least 0.2 to 0.5. so try to get as much water as possible. Stay hydrated; you’ll keep yourself healthy and you’ll feel better from it.

I hope you guys found today’s episode helpful. It’s, like I said, it’s a project of mine that I really enjoy, and if you like these more science-y episode, please let me know in the show notes so I know what to do more of.

And, so I have a very special episode coming up; today is our 100th episode. Isn’t that so exciting?! It also happens to be my birthday, which is even more fun. 100th episode being published on my birthday; it’s very fun. All fun all around. And I’m working on a very special episode of readers and listeners; you guys, calling in and leaving a voice memo. And I want to do a big mashup. I was going to do it for this episode, but I wanted to give you listeners here a chance to contribute to it, as well.

So if you’re interested; the kinds of things I’m talking about are going to be lessons learned. Let’s say you’ve done the Fed and Fit Project because you have the book. Or you’ve just been following this podcast for a while. Or you’ve been reading the blog for a while. Or, I don’t know, you follow Fed and Fit on social media; that’s me. But you follow on social media and you’ve learned something of value. Something that you think was an aha moment for you; I would love for you to share that. Please share that. What I’m going to do is a huge mashup, because what I’ve found is you guys love hearing from each other, and I want to do a show dedicated to you, dedicated to your lessons learned, and dedicated to things that are really making a difference in your life.

So if you have a big aha moment; a big lesson learned, something that just clicked for you, whether it came from this show, my book, or somewhere else; something that you thought was really important, I would love for you to write in and share it. Any words of encouragement you have for other people out there, there is a really great chance to share it. So how are you going to do that?

All you need to do is record a voice memo, no more than about two minutes, if you’re looking for a ballpark, so really short, just like you’re leaving somebody a voice mail. Record a voice memo; if you have an iPhone out there, I’m sure that there’s a similar app on android devices, but they come standard on all iPhones, just search for it on your phone. Voice memos. Record it right there on your phone, and then email it to me. Email that file as an attachment to CassyJoy@fedandfit.com. That’s all you’ve got to do! Just email me that file, and we’ll do a huge mashup, it’s going to be a lot of fun. So if you have something; I really encourage you to send it in. Do not be shy. You don’t have to have anything polished, and even if you just want to say hi, or do a shout out, or anything like that, I’d love to have it.

So that’s my big takeaway call to action for the day. I hope you found today’s episode wonderful. As always, we’ll have a complete transcript of the show on the blog. So thank you guys so much; we’ll be back again next week.

8 Responses to “Ep. 100: Seasonal Allergies 101”

Hi Cassy. Happy Birthday! I love the science-y episodes of your podcast and how you break down complex topics into relatable information. I haven’t listened to all 100 (!!!) episodes of your podcast yet, so I don’t know if you have already addressed this, but I have a hard time explaining to people about why vegetable oils are so bad for you and fats like coconut oil and (high quality) animal fats are so much better. I also have some vegan friends who argue that grass fed animals are even more harmful to the environment than commercially raised animals, but I believe that there is some vegan propaganda out there perpetuating this theory. Would you be able to (or have you already) address(ed) these topics? Thank you!

Thanks, Cassy–great episode, and very timely topic!! I was on Zytrec for years–I took it every day, year round–until I realized dairy gives me symptoms of seasonal allergies. So I stopped taking Zyrtec a couple months ago, and I actually went through withdrawal–who knew that was a thing?! Also, I didn’t know how much Zytrec affected me until I stopped it–it really changed my sleep. I used to take it at night, and now I feel like I need less sleep and wake up earlier, which is wonderful. Anyways, I’ve been doing great without it, but I’m nervous now that it’s spring; I don’t know how much trouble I’ll have once everything starts growing, and I refuse to take any medications now. I do have a Neti pot, and I think it helps a lot, so I’m hoping with that and your tips here, I will survive. Fingers crossed!

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Howdy and thank you so much for being here! My name is Cassy Joy Garcia. I'm on a mission to empower healthy lifestyle transformations through clear nutrition science and delicious Paleo-friendly foods. You can find over 200 of my healthy gluten-free and Paleo recipes on this website, my healthy living podcast "Fed+Fit" in iTunes, and my nutrition+fitness challenge info waiting list on the main menu bar! Sign up for the newsletter to stay in the loop.

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